As I approach age 68, I am increasingly aware of the fragility of our earthly existence and that our years on God’s earth are limited. My father has been gone for two years. His younger sister died in October at age 90 . . . . Since May I have suffered from severe shoulder pain that is limiting my activities . . . . Moreover, I find November and December depressing months, with darkness enveloping our northern hemispheric latitude for so many hours each day. In such circumstances, it is easy to become discouraged.
Nevertheless, as a cradle Christian, I, along with the rest of the church, have rehearsed the redemptive story embedded in the church calendar for nearly three score years and ten – so many times that by now its cyclical patterns have become a source of comfort and stability.
